The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-05-06
IAN the interest I have in you is to see


petent wages. Some Of you remember
when the war broke out ana all mer-
chandise went up, and merchants were
made mlliionaires in six months by the
simple rise in the value Of goods. Did the
clerk get advantage Of that riseE Some
times, not always. I saw estates gathered
in those times over which the curse of
God has hung ever since. The cry of I'M
paid men and women in these stores
reached the Lord of Sabaoth, and
| the indignation of God has been
around those Adjustments ever
since; rumbling in the car
riage wheels, flashing in the chandeliers,
glowing from the crimson upholstery,
laundering in the long roll of the ten pin
alley. Such men may build up palaces OF
| merchandise heaven high, but after
awhile disaster will come, and will put
/ one hand on this pillar, and another hand
/ on that pillar, and throw itself forward
until down will come the whole structure,
crushing the worshipers as grapes ara
mashed in a wine-press.
Then there are boys in establishments
who are ruined-in prosperous esta blish-
/ ments-ruined by their lack of compensa-
ton. In how many prosperous stores it
has been for the last twenty years that
boys were given just enough money to
learn them how to steal! Some were
seized upon by the police. The vast ma
jority of instances were not known. The
head of the firm asked:
'sWhere is George now?"
80, he isn't here any more"
A lad might better starve to death on q
blasted heath than take one cent from his
employer. Woe be to that employer who
unnecessa rily puts temptation in boys
way. There have been great establish
ments in these cities building marble
palaces, their owners dying worth mill
4
a vast amount Of their estate out of the
blood, and muscle, aDd nerve of half-paid
| clerks. Such men as-well, / will not
mention any name. But mean men who
have gathered up vast estates at the ex-
pense Of the people who were ground
/ under their heel
"Oh," say such merchants, ''lf you don't
like it here, then go and get a better
| place"
AS much as to say:
I've got you IN my grip, and I mean to
hold you; you can't get any other place.
o, what a contrast we SEQ between such
men and those Christian =1zarehants OF
Brooklyn and New York who to-day are
sympathetic with their clerks-whek they
pay the salary, acting in this way:
This salary that l give you is not all
my interest in you. You are an immortal
| man; you are an immortal woman; am
interested in your present and your ever
! lasting welfare; want you to under stan
that if 1 am little higher up IN This
| store, 1 am beside you in Christian sym
| pathy."
/ Go back forty years to Arthur Tappen's
| store in New York-a man whose worst
enemies never questioned his honesty.
| Every morning, he brought all the
| clerks, and the accountants, and the
weighers into a room for devotions
They sang. They prayed. They
| exhorted. On Monday morning the clerks
were asked where they had attended
/ church on the previous day, and what the
! sermons were about. 1t must have
| sounded strangely, that voice of praise
| along the streets where the devotees of
/ mammon were counting their golden
| beads. You say Arthur Tappen failed.
| Yes, he was unfortunate, like great
many good men; but understand he met
| all his obligations before he left this
world, and 1 know that he died in the
| peace of the gospel, and that he is before
| the throne of God to-day-forever blessed.
| If that be failing, wish that you may all
1 fail. There are great many young men
/ in this city-yea, in this housewife want
! a word of encouragement, Christian en-
! enlargement. One smile Of good cheer
| would be worth more to them tomorrow
morning in their places of business than
/ a present of $4,000 ten years hence.
/ o, l remember the apprehension and
the tremor Of entering profession. I re
| member very well the man who greeted
me in the ecclesiastical court with the tip
ends of the long fingers of the left hand;
and remember the other man who took
my hand in both of his ana said:
'God bless you, my brother; you have
| entered a glorious profession; be faithful
| to God and he viii see you through"
Why, feel this minute the thrill of that
Handwriting, though the man who gave
me the Christian grip has been in Heaven
| twenty five years. There are old men to-
day who can look back to forty years ago,
| when some one said a kind word to them.
Now, old men, pay back what you
got then 1t is great art for old
men to be able to encourage the
young. There are many young people in
our cities who have come from inland
counties Of our own State, from the gran
tie hills of the North, from the savannahs
of the South, from the prairies of the
West. They are here to get their fort
une. They are III boarding houses where
every body seems to be thinking of him
self. They want cOmpanionship, and they
want Christian encourag ement Give il
to them.
My word is to all clerks in this house:
Be mightier than your temptations.
Sandwich Islander used to think when he
slew an enemy all the strength of that
enemy came into his own right arm. And
/ have to tell you that every misfoBune
you conquer is so much a ded to your
moral power With omnipotence for
lever and the throne of God for a
fulcrum, you can move earth and
Heaven. While there are other Young
men putting the cup of sin to their lips,
stoop down and drink out of the fountains
Of God, and you will rise up strong &c
thresh the mountains. The ancients used
to think that pearls were fallen raindrops
which, touching the surface of the sea,
hardened into gems, then dropped to the
bottom. / have to tell you to-day that
storms of trial have showered imperish
able pearls into many young mans lap
o, young mani while you have goods &c
sell, Tememb Der you have q soul to save
In hospital Christian captain, wound
ed few days before, got delirious, and in
the midnight hour he sprang out on tn
floor of the hospital, thinking he was in
the battle, crying:
"Come on, boysi Forward Charger
Ali he was only battling the specteEs
of his own brain. But it is no imaginary
conflict into which l call you, young man,
to-day. There are ten thousand spiritual
foes that would capture you. In the name
of God up and at them. After the last
store has been closed, after the last bank
has gone down, after the shuttle Of the
quick feet on the custom-house steps has
stopped, after the long line of merchant
men on the sea have taken sail or fame,
after Brooklyn and New York and London
and Vienna have gone down into the grave
where Thebes and Babylon and Tyre lay
buried, after the great fire bells of the
Judgment Day have tolled at the burning
of a world on that day, all the affairs Of
the banking houses and stores viii come
up for inspection.
o, what an opening of account booksl
Side by side the clerks and the men who
employed them-the people who owned
thread-and-nce stores on the same
q, a DoT@